It's Really Happening

Judging by the fact that two different locals asked us how we found it, I’m guessing the Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club is somewhat of a hidden gem. At $5.50AU per adult for a scenic oceanside swim, I’d say it’s a steal. Since 1929, the saltwater pool has given people the chance to swim laps (sans-sharks) by the sea, with crashing waves spilling in and seagulls flying overhead. The bar upstairs, perfect for a glass of wine and breathtaking view after a swim, doesn’t hurt either.

Unfortunately for us, the weather in Sydney had been unseasonably chilly for mid-summer, even moreso at Bondi Beach where the wind was blowing unforgivingly. After watching the swimmers for several minutes and seriously contemplating a hot coffee instead, we decided that leaving without a dip would be a regrettable choice. So we paid the small fee, changed into our swimsuits, and braved the chilly turquoise waters.

It really wasn’t all that cold once you got in and moved around, but my fingers didn’t get the memo. Within a couple of minutes, my wedding band abruptly slipped off (for the first time ever) and sank. Immediately, I stopped and flagged down a nearby lap-swimmer and asked if he could find my ring. His eyes weren’t too good, he told me, but he tried briefly anyway, returning empty-handed. Surrendering his goggles, Kristen dove down and within her first breath, surprised both of us and found it no time (see her face in the video: genuine disbelief upon surfacing). Good thing too, because if I'd lost it, she would’ve had a fit.

Cheers to this local who lent us his goggles:

During our post-swim de-stressing sauna session, we chatted with an expat from Tucson who has lived in Sydney for 8 years (spoiler alert: he loves it). He recommended Nina’s Ploy Thai for dinner, so we took his advice and, after a short walk down the beach, found the BYO hole-in-the-wall restaurant filled with decidedly Australian locals. The bare, white walls and simple tablescapes (read: a box of tissues) made us feel right at home. We ordered duck noodle soup and drunk noodles, and savored every mouth-watering bite.

To round out our Bondi bonding time, we strolled over to Gelato Messina, a top-notch cold treat destination that our goggle lender had raved to us about. The open-air “bar” felt like a movie premiere, with excited fans queueing up and spilling onto the sidewalk. Our espresso/chocolate and pear/rhubarb scoops were decadent and delicious. As we walked off in search of a bus back to our hotel, very full and very happy, we had absolutely zero regrets.

Disclosure: Even though I'm traveling in Australia on behalf of DoubleTree by Hilton for my DTour of a Lifetime, what I write about is up to me.

Portland, Oregon, the city that takes great pride in its weirdness, was a must-visit city on this trip, even though we’d both been a couple of times previously. This time around, we decided that we would focus on sampling the great food Portland has to offer, thanks in part to an article we’d just seen in the latest Bon Appetit. Plus, we really only had an afternoon’s time to spare.

Our first stop was lunch at Cultured Caveman, Portland’s first paleo food cart, something Loren had read about a few times and was dying to sample. If you don’t know, paleo is a way of eating that is modeled on our ancestors’ diets, which excludes grains, legumes, dairy and excess sugar, and instead focuses on veggies, meat, poultry, fish, nuts, seeds, healthy fats and some fruit. We ordered three different menu items for some variety, including a small kale salad, bacon almond dates, and sweet potato fries with homemade ketchup. Super tasty and healthy.

After posting a photo of the cart on Instagram, Loren found out that it was International Bacon Day. This was fun news (for us, every day is bacon day), and we’d already had bacon in two meals by that time: we cooked our breakfast eggs in bacon fat, and we’d had delicious bacon-wrapped dates for lunch. Our excitement about the official Bacon Day was echoed when we told the paleo food cart owner, from which a quick foodie conversation ensued. On her recommendation (albeit not paleo at all), we set off down the street for a splurge at a little ice cream shop called Salt & Straw.

They have a cool handmade look and feel, along with really unique flavor combinations rooted in seasonal, local ingredients, and the whole shebang did not disappoint one bit. We got one scoop of the guest Chef’s special, a kaffir lime and lemongrass ice cream with fish sauce caramel (salty-sweet bliss for Kristen), and a scoop of the honey balsamic strawberry with cracked pepper for Loren. Sooo yummy.

*Honey Balsamic Strawberry with Cracked Pepper / Kaffir Lime & Lemongrass Fish Sauce Caramel*

Next we headed to the Nob Hill neighborhood (why are all cool neighborhoods called Nob Hill?) for a pick-me-up caffeine charge and a chance to blog. We sat at the little cafe called Fat Straw, which specializes in bubble tea and bahn mi. We would have loved to try the bahn mi but only had room for beverages and wifi. We each got a cup of flavored iced tea, which they make with coconut milk (dairy-free!). Kristen promptly spilled half of hers on the floor, after which fierce blogging ensued.

The Portland food tour continued at a popular Thai place called Pok Pok and which we read about in Bon Appetit. Pok Pok is nestled a few miles from downtown in a more residential area that seems to be an up and coming neighborhood. Even at 5pm, we were quoted at a 1hr 45min wait, which we weathered while sipping cocktails at the restaurant’s bar across the street, called Whiskey Soda Lounge.

We were super intrigued at their list of tasting vinegars, and the cocktail Loren adopted as his poison had tequila with Som honey drinking vinegar, fresh-squeezed grapefruit and lime. It was super tasty. Kristen’s drink was called Khing & I, made with Mekhong (Thai whiskey), lime and ginger syrup.

Whiskey Soda Lounge - Tequila with Som honey drinking vinegar, fresh-squeezed grapefruit and lime — Whiskey Soda Lounge - *Tequila with Som honey drinking vinegar, fresh-squeezed grapefruit and lime*

We were notified that our table was ready just in time to save Kristen from ordering another drink, so we went back across the street and sat down to a delicious dinner. The unique plates are not your normal Thai dishes, but deliciously different creations that are inspired by Thai street-vendor fare, Chiang Mai (Northern) cuisine, or Burmese cuisine, to name a few. The server explained most menu items are meant to be shared, so at his instruction we felt okay about ordering three plates: a duck dish, a pork belly dish, and the most popular dish: the spicy fish-sauce chicken wings. Even though we’d only just begun to scratch the surface after half an hour, we were both stuffed, so we packaged up the wings and felt good about leaving Portland before overdoing it.

But... We caved, and couldn’t pass up one last stop along our Portland culinary extravaganza, this time for dessert. Voodoo Doughnuts is a super-hipster Portland mainstay (its tagline is “good things come in pink boxes”), which has become a tourist destination; when we drove by their flagship location near Burnside Bridge downtown, there were at least a hundred excited patrons lined up down the sidewalk (similar to Georgetown Cupcake in DC).

Luckily Kristen remembered that they have a second location. We ended up waiting in line for a shorter amount of time than it took for us to decide from the dozens of doughnut kinds. We eventually settled on two: one chocolate cake doughnut with pink frosting, topped with coconut and peanut butter; the other a large rectangular doughnut topped with maple frosting and bacon. (Yes, bacon! Remember, it was International Bacon Day! We were just doing our part.) Mmmm, sugary fried gluten, so unhealthy but so delicious! We could only handle a few nibbles each, and then re-wrapped them, adding the package to our cache of leftovers for later consumption. It’s kind of ironic how healthy the day started off, but how easily we slipped off the bandwagon into progressively more unhealthy splurges. Well, you only live once.

We had our eyes on our next big destination, Olympic National Park, so we drove into the night, crossing into Washington state, and eventually found ourselves a campsite at Lewis & Clark State Park for the night. It was pretty standard, though we swear a nearby campground neighbor may have been the lead singer of the Kings of Leon - some guy was belting songs out so confidently and perfectly, we sat back and wondered if it could be him. Though, our next-door neighbor wasn’t quite so happy: their 10-ish-year old son comically said, “Quiet down now” in a southern accent just loud enough for us to hear.

Bondi Icebergs, Or How I Almost Lost My Wedding Ring

Foodcation in Portland, Oregon